FRANCE: McDonald's Foe Jose Bové Back in CourtAgence France PresseFebruary 15th, 2001Jose Bové, French peasants' champion and hero of the international anti-globalism movement, was due back in court Thursday on trial for his part in the dismantling of a McDonald's restaurant.

Grave Danger Posed Under NAFTA by Unsafe Mexican TrucksPublic CitizenFebruary 6th, 2001Although a trade panel is expected this week to order the United States to permit access to all U.S. roads by Mexican trucks, the U.S. should continue to limit access because of the grave dangers many Mexican trucks pose to motorists on U.S. highways, Public Citizen has concluded in a report released today.

USA: Going Bananasby Michael Jessen, AlterNetFebruary 6th, 2001With a history tied to colonial exploitation, union busting, presidential influence peddling, and environmental degradation, it's obvious the banana is much more than a topping for breakfast cereal or a nutritious snack food. The banana has been at the center of a controversial World Trade Organization ruling and just last month the world's top banana producer (Chiquita Brands International) appeared to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy even as it filed a half-billion dollar lawsuit against the European Union.

AMERICAN SAMOA: Abuses Cited at Apparel Plant That Supplied U.S. Retailersby Steven Greenhouse, The New York TimesFebruary 6th, 2001Workers at a factory in American Samoa that made apparel for the J. C. Penney Company and other retailers were often beaten and were provided food so inadequate that some were ''walking skeletons,'' a Labor Department investigation has found.

SWITZERLAND: Police Barricade Davos to Prevent Protestsby John A. Dillon and Malini Goel, Forum News DailyJanuary 28th, 2001The police used water cannons and steel fences to stop protesters on Saturday from getting within a mile of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos.

US: Shoe Manufacturer Latest Casualty to Free Tradeby Justin Pope, The Associated PressJanuary 22nd, 2001Sneaker maker Converse Inc., best known for its basketball and ''Chuck Taylor'' brand shoes, is closing three North American production plants and shifting production to Asia as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

BRAZIL: World Social Forum Seeks a 'Possible World'by Mario Osava, Inter Press ServiceJanuary 22nd, 2001The World Social Forum, meanwhile, involves leaders and groups with links to the political left and centre-left, who are attempting to build a broad, worldwide organization to take on what they consider the ''exclusive globalisation'' process imposed by the big capitalists who meet in Davos and to prove that ''another world is possible,'' the theory adopted as a the meeting's slogan.

SWITZERLAND: WTO Still Not Ready for New Roundby Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press ServiceDecember 21st, 2000One year after the failed World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference, the hostile climate established in the US city of Seattle with respect to new negotiations to broaden global economic liberalisation persists.

USA: Latin America Is Priority on Bush Trade Agendaby Anthony DePalma, New York TimesDecember 18th, 2000He may not be comfortable discussing unrest in East Timor, or pronouncing the name of the leaders of Turkmenistan, but President-elect George W. Bush considers the rest of the Western Hemisphere "our backyard" and will have several opportunities in his first year in office to make Latin America a trade and foreign policy priority.

Brazil: Unions Want FTAA Put to Popular Voteby Mario Osava, Inter Press ServiceDecember 15th, 2000Some 700 representatives of the central trade unions of the members of South America's leading trade bloc, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - called on their governments to submit an eventual continent-wide free trade treaty to national plebiscites.

NICARAGUA: Pentagon Contracts Nicaraguan Sweatshopsby Steven Greenhouse, The New York TimesDecember 3rd, 2000An arm of the Pentagon has come under fire for procuring large quantities of apparel from a Nicaraguan factory that labor rights groups say is a sweatshop and that the United States trade representative has voiced serious concerns about.

US: Student Movement is Thriving After Seattleby Bhumika Muchhala, Boulder Daily CameraNovember 25th, 2000Nov. 30 is the first anniversary of the ''Battle of Seattle.'' As thousands of students joined with trade unionists, environmentalists and others to demonstrate against the World Trade Organization, a new era of protest was dawning.

US: Seattle WTO Protests Mark New Activist Ageby Luis Cabrera, Associated PressNovember 25th, 2000The protests that all but shut down last year's World Trade Organization meeting may have been a surprise, but they were no fluke, organizers and observers say.

Canada: Arctic Pollution Linked to Industrial Plants and Incineratorsby Danielle Knight, Inter Press ServiceOctober 3rd, 2000Toxic pollution that has mysteriously entered Canada's pristine Arctic region has now been linked to air emissions from specific municipal waste incinerators, cement kilns and industrial plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to a new study released Tuesday.

US: Roundup of Student Activism Against Sweatshopsby Keith Meatto, Mother JonesOctober 1st, 2000This year's cause celebre was the campaign to end the use of sweatshop labor by the $2.5-billion collegiate apparel industry. Undergraduates nationwide demanded their colleges quit the Fair Labor Association (FLA) -- an industry-backed watchdog that opponents liken to a fox guarding the hen house -- and join the Worker Rights Consortium. Founded by students, academics, and labor unions last October, the WRC promises strict workplace oversight, free from industry influence.

AUSTRALIA: U.S. Soccer Players Confront Nike ProtestorsTimes of IndiaSeptember 12th, 2000This was Sunday, the day before the start of the three-day World Economic Forum in Melbourne, the same type of meeting that sparked riots in Seattle last year. The two players just happened to pass one of the demonstrations at a park.

Australia: Anti-Globalization Protestors Claim VictoryAgence France PresseSeptember 11th, 2000Anti-globalisation campaigners claimed victory Monday after blockading a major international economic conference in a pitched battle with police in which scores of people were hurt.